Ecological and Spatial Data Sources

Comprehensive / Informational Portals

Data Observation Network for Earth (DataONE) is the foundation of new innovative environmental science through a distributed framework and sustainable cyberinfrastructure that meets the needs of science and society for open, persistent, robust, and secure access to well-described and easily discovered Earth observational data.

Geochemical analysis of sediment samples throughout the United States, collected by
the hydrogeochemical and stream sediment reconnaissance (HSSR) phase of the
National Uranium Resource Evaluation (NURE) program

Biological / Species Data

European Commission project aims to identify and catalogue those European ecosystems and environmental conditions that influence the spatial and temporal distribution and dynamics of human pathogenic agents.

A leading source for reliable scientific information about species and ecosystems of the Western Hemisphere. This site serves as a portal for accessing several types of publicly available biodiversity data.

ESRL/PSD) addresses physical science questions of short- and long-term societal and policy relevance within NOAA's Climate and Weather and Water Goals, while conducting the physical process research necessary so that ESRL can help provide the nation with a seamless suite of information and forecast products ranging from short-term weather forecasts to longer-term climate forecasts and assessments.

Knowledge-based system uses point measurements of precipitation, temperature, and other climatic factors to produce continuous, digital grid estimates of monthly, yearly, and event-based climatic parameters.

Forest Resource Data

The FIA Program reports on status and trends in forest area and location; in the species, size, and health of trees; in total tree growth, mortality, and removals by harvest; in wood production and utilization rates by various products; and in forest land ownership.

Hydrologic / Water Resources Data

NHDPlus is an integrated suite of application-ready geospatial data sets that incorporate many of the best features of the National Hydrography Dataset (NHD), the National Elevation Dataset (NED), the National Land Cover Dataset (NLCD), and the Watershed Boundary Dataset (WBD).

Land Cover and Land Use Data

Produced by the State of California. This program uses Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) satellite imagery to map land cover types and derive land cover changes across all ownerships. The state is covered in five unique project areas. One project area is completed each year, then revisited and updated every fifth year.

Nineteen land cover classes defined using the Land Cover Classification System (LCCS) standard developed by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of United Nations. From the Council on Environmental Cooperation (CEC) North American Environmental Atlas

HYDE presents (gridded) time series of population and land use for the last 12,000 years ! It also presents various other indicators such as GDP, value added, livestock, agricultural areas and yields, private consumption, greenhouse gas emissions and industrial production data, but only for the last century.

The DCW is a comprehensive 1:1,000,000 scale vector basemap of the world, designed to meet the needs of pilots and air crews in medium-and low-altitude en route navigation and to support military operational planning, intelligence briefings, and other needs.

The goal of VTP is to foster the creation of tools for easily constructing any part of the real world in interactive, 3D digital form. Terrain data sources and discussions of terrain simulation methodologies.

Remote Sensing Satellite Data

The United States Government maintains these 'scientist-friendly', interactive Web portals for searching for and acquiring (mostly) FREE geospatial datasets:

As a World Data Centre for Soils: serves the scientific community as custodian of world soil information by collecting, scrutinising, analysing and disseminating data and information, and making them freely available.